Chapter 581

Bells of the great captain's passing ring out worldwide. Some feel relief that so fearsome a pirate is finally gone, while others, stirred by his last words confirming the treasure is real, plunge headlong into the pirate life. His guarded islands fall under attack, and Brownbeard's crew tears down the banner he left flying. Out on the waves the supernovas, apart from Luffy, Law, and Zoro, struggle through a storm: Urouge and Apoo dread what the new era holds, Bonney seethes at an unnamed figure, and Hawkins cannot work out why the captain's odds of survival never drop to nothing. Aboard his own vessel, Kid speaks of the New World and the surviving Emperors, naming Shanks, Kaido, and Big Mom.

Law's submarine breaks the surface in the open sea, a Marine warship close behind, and Bepo grasps that Hancock is pursuing them purely out of worry for Luffy. Stepping from the operating room and wiping blood from his hands, Law states that Luffy is wounded beyond belief and barely holding on. Newkama and Ivankov then swarm the warship, and Ivankov presses Law about his connection to the captain. Among Marineford's wreckage, Sengoku is briefed on Teach's recruiting method, pitting the Level 6 prisoners against one another so the survivors could enlist, and learns that more have vanished. When Brannew passes along the order to bury the breakout in silence, Sengoku flies into a rage. Not far off, Doflamingo, acting on a command from someone ranked above even Sengoku, sets his Pacifista on Moria, who coughs blood and is told to aim his guess higher.

Every supernova's ship is shown, though which belongs to whom stays murky. Kid supplies Big Mom's epithet, a pirate called Brownbeard appears, and several unnamed Level 6 escapees are confirmed loose. Never before had readers watched Sengoku openly doubt a World Government instruction, and Doflamingo accepts the kill order on Moria. This opens the Post-War Arc, with a cover of Buggy and Shanks feasting at an oden stall tended by a gorilla.